Hello John,
Well, in a way this demonstrates the point that I am trying to make. It is
NOT that the one who fails to understand has a defective perception, only a
different perspective, and so a different way of making sense. It takes
effort and serendipity for people to come to an understanding. If we start
with this assumption, the way opens for us to do the work to understand each
other.
In relation to the ASD students, part of what they are suffering from is the
prejudice of those who believe that they can be easily understood.
Kind Regards,
Penny
Penny Georgiou
Access 1st
"Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be
counted counts."
Albert Einstein.
-----Original Message-----
From: John Conway [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 21 April 2012 09:59
To: Penny Georgiou; [log in to unmask]
Subject: RE: Exam arrangements
must remember to ask you to write exam questions, Penny! I am really
struggling to understand your comment. I thought Natalya's point was very
important and very pertinent.
let's have a competition - what is our favourite exam question?
Mine is "write short notes on pigs or sheep"
with regards
John
Dr John Conway
Director of Research
Director, MSc International Rural Development Disability Officer Royal
Agricultural College Cirencester, Glos. GL7 6JS
01285 652531
________________________________________
From: Discussion list for disabled students and their support staff.
[[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Penny Georgiou
[[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 20 April 2012 19:37
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Exam arrangements
Dear Robert,
Now that I have a little more time. Let's see if it can be made clearer:
Ist sentence: " Often, those who present with what appear to be difficulties
are just tripping over the dysfunctions of what is ordinarily accepted as
normal."
- ie when someone doesn't understand, it is not necessarily that they are
incorrect in their perception or deduction. It may simply be that the norm
rules because it is the accepted way of doing things, even if it can be
seen from another perspective as very strange.
Second sentence revised to a paragraph: "Sometimes, simply affirming that
what they (eg, students with ASD) notice is not incorrect but (if it seems
difficult to understand) it is because of the particularity (specificity) of
others (how others like things to be - I say tomayto, you say tomahto,)
rather than because of a 'difficulty' (perceptual error) on the part of the
one who has a singular perspective (one not shared by others). When this is
done, they (those who are having a difficulty understanding) are usually
better able to navigate, because they can trust their perceptions (and work
with them) calculating degrees of difference between this and normal
perception. They can be termed A-perceptions, since normality consists in
not noticing a great deal - ie noticing mainly what is consistent with the
majority position in a particular community, and being able to ignore what
does not fit with this view."
The emperor's new clothes is a common demonstration of normal a-perception
(not noticing) some that is normal, even if it seems very odd from another
perspective.
How is that?
Kind regards,
Penny
-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 20 April 2012 14:41
To: Penny Georgiou; [log in to unmask]
Subject: RE: Exam arrangements
Hello Paul
May I congratulate you on understanding PG's most recent contribution.
Frankly, I remain baffled having read the entry significantly more than four
times.
Penny, I wonder if you could take the trouble to explain your last comment.
I should say that I find the second sentence particularly troubling.
Best wishes
Robert Lenton
Mental Wellbeing Support Officer
University of Brighton
Manor House
Moulsecoomb Place
Brighton
BN2 4GA
Tel 01273 643799
Email [log in to unmask]
I'm in the office on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays
-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion list for disabled students and their support staff.
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Penny Georgiou
Sent: 20 April 2012 09:54
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Exam arrangements
:-)
PG
-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Smyth [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 20 April 2012 09:52
To: Penny Georgiou; [log in to unmask]
Subject: RE: Exam arrangements
Hi
This is all very interesting and has certainly got me thinking....though I
had to read Penny's last email about four times before I fully understood
it!
Regards, Paul
-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion list for disabled students and their support staff.
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Penny Georgiou
Sent: 19 April 2012 20:12
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Exam arrangements
That's a very interesting point, Natalya.
Often, those who present with what appear to be difficulties are just
tripping over the dysfunctions of what is ordinarily accepted as normal.
Sometimes, simply affirming that what they notice is correct but just that
particularity of others, rather than their 'difficulty', they are better
able to navigate; ie trust their perceptions and then to calibrate them in
relation to normal a-perceptions, since normality consist in not noticing a
great deal.
Kind regards,
PG
-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion list for disabled students and their support staff.
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Natalya Dell
Sent: 19 April 2012 20:07
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Exam arrangements
On 19/04/12 19:48, Penny Georgiou wrote:
> The issue here is likely to be linked to a lack of metaphor - taking
things literally and not knowing how to articulate ideas (make connections
between them). eg, a difficulty with recognising synonyms and to realise
that text can be referring to the same thing but presenting it in a
different way - as with examination questions.
Another issue is the fundamental design of many exam papers themselves.
I used to work for one of the large exam boards in the question paper
design unit. The examiner wrote the paper but our team was responsible for
ensuring that paper was written to the appropriate standards which during my
employment were governed by an Ofqual document called "Fair access by
design" archived at
http://www.ofqual.gov.uk/files/pdf-05-1941-fair-access-design-final-v2.pdf.
An example of an exam paper standard was how words were used. So volume
would never be used to describe a book because it could also mean quantity.
Settlement was never used for "village" because a settlement could also be
an agreement. Instead of modifying papers on a case by case basis for
deaf/dyslexic/other disabled student at the point of exam delivery many core
papers were being auto-modified by specialists (e.g teachers of the deaf) at
an early stage and the examiners/question paper units trained to write more
clearly.
Other standards include recommended structures, breaking out the wording
with typesetting, use of bullets and ensuring the questions are as
absolutely clear as possible and not relying on inference or seemingly
small things like how many lines per answer based on the number of points
and range of expected/acceptable answers. A 1 mark question would be
unlikely to have 6 lines to answer in. The idea behind this was research
evidence which suggested pupils are affected by the type of answer space a
question has.
The reason I'm pointing this stuff out is that I was appalled upon starting
work at university with how poor exam paper design is in comparison. There
seems to be no consistent concept of exam setters thinking how the questions
are understood, no consistent rigorous
language checking, no basic layout and design sensibility and so on. I
don't know if it is appropriate for DSA reports to say "ensure exam papers
are designed to high quality standards" or if there's any good HEI guidance
but there are definitely systemic issues which if fixed might reduce the
sorts of difficulties students with ASDs have in managing that style of
assessment.
Natalya
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